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Sir Charles Mackerras
died on Wednesday aged 84 and surely will be much mourned by the many
thousands who followed his long career in concert halls and opera
houses or through his recordings.

Born in America of
Australian parents, Sir Charles was taken home to Sydney at the age
of two and later studied oboe, piano, and composition at the New
South Wales State Conservatorium of Music. After becoming principal
oboist in the Sydney Symphony Orchestra (1943-1946) he then moved to
London, where he joined the orchestra at Sadler's Wells while
studying conducting with Michael Mudie. He received a British Council
Scholarship in 1947 which enabled him to study with Václav
Talich at the Prague Academy of Music. This provided him with a
thorough grounding in Czech music, a subject on which he quickly
became an acknowledged expert as well as its great champion. There is
little doubt that the worldwide popularity of Janáček’s
music in particular, especially the operas, was due in no small part
to Charles Mackerras’s enthusiastic influence.

After returning to
London in 1948, Sir Charles became an assistant conductor at Sadler's
Wells Opera until 1953 when he was engaged as principal conductor of
the BBC Concert Orchestra, subsequently appearing as a guest
conductor with almost all of the major British orchestras. His debut
in 1963 at London's Royal Opera conducting Shostakovich's Katerina
Izmailova was followed by his appointment as Principal Conductor at
the Hamburg State Opera. He returned in 1970 to Sadler's Wells
(renamed the English National Opera in 1974) as the company’s
Music Director, a position he held until 1978. Other important
engagements soon followed: he made his Metropolitan Opera debut in
New York conducting Gluck's Orfeo et Euridice in 1972, from 1976 to
1979 he was chief guest conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra in
London and after a stint as chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony
Orchestra (1982-1985), he became artistic director of the Welsh
National Opera in Cardiff (1987-1992). He was also principal guest
conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in Glasgow (from 1992)
and has remained the SCO’s Conductor Laureate ever since. He
also held similar positions with the Welsh National Opera, the San
Francisco Opera, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the
Philharmonia Orchestra.

Charles Mackerras was
made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1974, and was
knighted in 1979 for his services to music. In 2003 he became a
Companion of Honour in the Queen's Birthday Honours and in 2005 he
was presented not only with the Royal Philharmonic Society’s
Gold Medal but also became the first recipient of the Queen’s
Medal for Music. Other international honours awarded to Sir Charles
included the Medal of Merit from the Czech Republic (1996) and a
Companion of the Order of Australia in 2005. He was also given
honorary D. Mus degrees from the Universities of Hull, York,
Nottingham, Brno in the Czech Republic, Griffith in Brisbane,
Australia, and Oxford. He celebrated his 80th birthday and his 50th
anniversary with the Royal Opera House in 2005, conducting Un Ballo
in Maschera and marked his 55th year at the Edinburgh Festival in
2006 conducting the complete Beethoven Symphonies. He was recently
named Honorary President of the Edinburgh International Festival
Society

Sir Charles’
scholastic work on Czech music and his promotion of it were
legendary. He had conducted the London Philharmonic’s first
professional performance in the UK of the "original version"
of Glagolitic Mass with the Brighton Festival Chorus at the Royal
Festival Hall in 1993. He then went on to bring most of Janáček’s
music to the UK, Europe, the USA and Australia. This was a remarkable
achievement in itself, but Sir Charles’s interests and
apparently boundless energies were even more wide-ranging. He was
also an expert on Mozart’s operas and somehow managed an
operatic output which ranged from the baroque to Wagner and beyond
including that most English of Victorian institutions, Gilbert and
Sullivan.

His discography spanned
the period from 78 rpm ‘records’ including his own ballet
score Pineapple Poll based on music from the G and S repertoire which
was initially released on six 78 rpm discs, through to a two SACD set
of Mozart’s last four symphonies with the Scottish Chamber
Orchestra issued by Linn in 2007. This huge catalogue of recordings,
most of which are still available, is an important legacy from a
much-loved, respected and truly great musician.